News of the Week (October 13th, 2019)

 

News of the Week for Oct. 13th, 2019


 

Gun Rights

 

SCOTUS will hear NY gun law case after all
You may recall that back in August we discussed the oppressive gun control law in New York City that was pulled off the books when the Supreme Court agreed to review the appeal of the case. The law had basically forbade any transport of a lawfully owned firearm inside the city unless it was being taken to or from an officially sanctioned gun range, and even then it would have to be locked up in a fashion rendering it unusable in an emergency.

Gavin Newsom Could Soon Make California’s Gun Laws Even Worse
You’d think at this point California would have run out of gun control laws to put on the books, but as it turns out legislators have sent quite a few proposals to Governor Gavin Newsom this year, and time is running out for the governor to veto any of the proposals. NRA-ILA notes that there are currently nine different bills sitting on the governor’s desk, and unless Newsom issues a formal veto, the bills will become law in just a matter of days.

Kansas Schoolgirl Arrested, Charged with Felony for Brandishing Finger Gun
One of the nice things about a moral panic is that it frees up individuals from responsibility for their own actions. If everybody’s panicked about some supposed social ill, it’s okay to do very silly things because you’re just trying to protect people. Whether the boogeyman is global warming, or explicit song lyrics, or violent video games, or whatever else you’re convinced is dangerous, your righteous indignation is justifiable. And if it’s about guns? Dude, panicking about guns is pretty much mandatory. They don’t even need to be real guns. These days you can freak out about toy guns, bubble guns, cookies in the shape of guns… even finger guns! The important thing is that you’re protecting the children.

California man mysteriously freed after selling illegal AR-15s
Here’s an odd story out of California that dates back nearly a decade but I’m only just hearing about it now. It deals with a man named Joseph Roh who lived in a suburb of Los Angeles. After a lengthy BATFE investigation, it was determined that Roh had been illegally manufacturing AR-15 style, semiautomatic rifles (without serial numbers) in his own warehouse. What’s more, he had been selling them for $1,000 a pop to people, many of whom were not legally allowed to purchase a firearm due to having a criminal record. In fact, one of his customers turned out to be John Zawahri, who you may recall from a mass shooting in Santa Monica in 2013.

 

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Environmental studies department seeks applicants with ‘ecofeminism’ background
A private college in Maine is seeking an Environmental Studies professor with some very specific suggested qualifications.

Julian Castro Wants to “Phase Out” Nuclear Power
Julian Castro, like almost all of his peers in the 2020 Democratic primary field, believes that climate change is an “existential threat” to the human race. So existential is the threat posed by a gradual rise in global temperatures that Castro supports local bans on fracking, which could simultaneously displace thousands of workers from well-paying jobs and hinder domestic efforts towards energy independence.

UN Climate Chief Says Communism is Best Way to Fight Global Warming
Climate change has been a popular topic of conversation lately and it appears the United Nations is taking a stand on the environmental changes. The UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres, also apparently knows about how government systems affect the climate. Oh wait, no she doesn’t.

The Lights Are Out in California, And That Was the Plan All Along
Before planned blackouts are through in two or three days, as many as 3 million Californians may go without power.

Environmentalists have a new target: Charmin toilet paper
Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble faces pressure from environmentalists to clean up its act.

California bans hotels from using tiny plastic bottles
Hotels in California will have to stop giving guests small plastic shampoo bottles under a new law.

Electric cars could be just another ecological disaster
As sea levels rise and climate-change protests grow ever louder around the world, the owners of electric cars may feel they are doing their bit to avert a global-warming crisis. If so, they may be deluding themselves. Electric vehicles currently account for less than 0.5% of the world’s cars. That will change soon. Many countries, including France, Canada, the UK and Norway, have set target dates for ending the sale of gasoline or diesel vehicles between 2025 and 2040, and major car manufacturers are racing to dominate this new and lucrative market.

The Navy’s Patent for a Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is Wild
The designs seemingly stretch the limits of science.

A New Dark Age: California’s Blackouts Are Self-Inflicted
California, the richest state in the nation—and one that’s often portrayed as the progressive harbinger of the future for the rest of the country—has been hit with its latest Third World-style disaster.

California’s Green Energy Dreams turn into its Power Outage Nightmare
In Calizuela, Californians are discovering the dark truth about solar powered homes and electric cars.

 

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Nevada Legalizes Starving Incapacited Patients
This is stunning. Nevada has passed a law allowing competent persons to sign an advance directive instructing that all food and water be withheld if they become incapacitated by dementia. In other words, the law allows people to order their future care givers to starve and dehydrate them to death.

 

War & Terror

 

Trump allies in Congress assail decision to let Turkey attack Syrian Kurds
President Donald Trump’s green light on Sunday for Turkey to attack Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria has generated widespread condemnation from political allies and rivals alike on Capitol Hill while opening the door for Democratic presidential candidates to hit him on foreign policy.

U.S. Consents to a Turkish Invasion in Syria; Kurdish Forces Call It ‘A Stab in the Back’
The U.S. will pull back troops from northern Syria to make way for Turkey to take over, the White House announced on Sunday. “Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria,” said the White House statement, using awfully euphemistic language for what many are describing as a Turkish invasion undertaken with U.S. consent.

Video: Hundreds of handcuffed, blindfolded prisoners in China
Video posted online last month shows several hundred prisoners who are handcuffed and blindfolded being taken away from a train. Of course prisoner transfers happen everywhere in the world, but in this case, the prisoners are from China’s Xinjiang province who were likely arrested because they are Muslim

US allowing Turkey to go after Syrian Kurds?
I awoke to some distressing news this morning, though perhaps it wasn’t all that unexpected. NBC News (along with other outlets) is reporting that President Trump has announced that United States troops in Syria along the Turkish border have begun clearing out of the area and will be turning over responsibility for battling the remnants of ISIS to Turkey. This has understandably alarmed those who remain supportive of our Kurdish allies in the region.

The Fate of the Kurds: Repartition of the Region Seems the Sole Alternative
“In an extraordinary Sunday night statement, the White House announces that the US ‘will no longer be in the immediate area’ of Northern Syria, allow Turkey to launch an invasion in the region and give Turkey responsibility for captured ISIS fighters in the area,” NBC News reported. There were immediate accusations that the Trump administration had greenlighted a Turkish offensive against the Kurds. It is not clear as of this writing how deep the U.S. troop withdrawal from the Kurdish front line will be. The NYT reported that “it was unclear how extensive the Turkish operation would be, or whether Turkish forces would clash with the American-backed Kurds.”

 

National

 

Actress Fired for Christian Views on Homosexuality
You’ve heard of seeing red. You’ve heard of feeling blue. And now you’re about to hear of a new state of mind brought to you by “The Color Purple”-resoluteness.

Merritt Update: Twitter Caves on Its Ban of Conservative Candidate
Our report on Twitter’s shut-down of Dan Merritt’s account gathered interest: Fox News was set to a do a segment on Monday (it may still be planning to do such) with the conservative combat veteran and Congressional candidate.

“Hundreds” Of Transgender People Want To Go Back To Their Birth Sex, Says Formerly Trans Woman
At age 17, Charlie Evans lived as a boy, binding her chest and shaving her head. A decade later, in 2018, she publicly stopped being transgender. In the year since then, she’s been contacted by “hundreds” of transgender people looking to do the same, she recently told the United Kingdom’s Sky News.

Rasmussen’s 2020 survey: Trump tied 45/45 with …
Donald Trump’s week got off to a rough start. First his favorite morning show tears into him, and now his favorite pollster seems to be throwing some shade his way. In a hypothetical head-to-head match in 2020, Trump would only get to a 45/45 tie against the woman he vanquished in 2016, according to Rasmussen Reports.

Does the 1964 Civil Rights Act ban discrimination based on sexual orientation?
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a case where the issue is whether the ban on discrimination because of sex contained in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 encompasses discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. George Will considers the matter in his latest column (the title of which, in the online edition, misstates his argument, I think).

Navigate this
The Washington Post declares, in the headline to a paper edition article, that Chief Justice Roberts “must navigate a highly divisive docket as 2020 campaign rages.” I didn’t realize it was the Chief Justice’s job to “navigate” a docket or to worry about political campaigns. I thought it was his job, along with that of his colleagues, to reach correct conclusions about the merits of each case on the Court’s docket.

New Poll Suggests Dems’ Impeachment Fever Helping Trump With Independents
A new IBD-TIPP poll released Monday shows Trump has gained significant ground with independent voters in head-to-head matchups with the Democrat Party frontrunners for president.

Trump Calls for Romney’s ‘Impeachment’ After Utah Senator Criticizes Appeal to China
It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party and you damn well better get used to it — or else.

Communist China: A force for good or evil? Students respond
Campus Reform asked University of Maryland students about Mao Zedong on the 70th anniversary of Communist China.

Calif. offers to pay for ‘basic needs’ of students
California has granted the University of California, Santa Cruz $1.5 million for “basic needs” programs.

Supreme Court session begins without ill Clarence Thomas
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was reportedly absent from the bench Monday as the court reconvened for its new term.

WaPo poll: Americans support opening impeachment inquiry – by twenty points
This is not great news for the president, even if one can nitpick the way that the Washington Post framed the question. Their new poll shows a strong majority supporting an impeachment inquiry, 58/38, with a near-majority 49% supporting impeachment as well. That comes from a double-digit increase in support from all three partisan demographics since the previous poll in July, taken just before the collapse of Muellermas

NBA stars affirm love for China
When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn came to the U.S. after years of captivity in the USSR, he professed amazement at how U.S. journalists who had exhibited cowardice when in the Soviet Union were posing as courageous lions of the press in the more congenial setting of the United States. I get the same feeling about the National Basketball Association.

Kowtowing, South Park style
Britain’s Guardian reports on South Park’s mock apology to China in response to the regime’s censorship. The Guardian notes that the South Park crew has stepped up to show the NBA how it’s done: “South Park’s creators posted a statement on Twitter under the headline: “Official apology to China from Trey Parker and Matt Stone, which said: ‘Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts.'”

“Make America Great Again” listed on Calif. college’s ‘white supremacy’ pyramid
San Diego City College hosted a “Confronting White Supremacy through the Arts” event in early October.

‘Anti-racist alert’ system notifies UNC students of ‘dangerous’ individuals on campus
After clashing with a local group that protested the university’s removal of a confederate monument, students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill created a system that sends text messages to alert others of the presence of supposedly

Early Alarm Bell for Democrats
A headline in The Hill trumpets a new Hill-Harris poll as follows: “Poll: Overwhelming Majority of Black Voters Back Any Democrat Over Trump.”

Nevada wildlife officials warn hunters about ‘zombie’ deer
“Zombie” deer roam 24 states in the US, sickened by a neurodegenerative disease that reduces them to stumbling, drooling creatures.

Sasse, Cruz, AOC, others in Congress send bipartisan letter to NBA: Stop kissing China’s ass and suspend your operations there for now
You have to screw up awfully badly in America 2019 to forge a coalition of critics that includes Ted Cruz, Ben Sasse, Tom Cotton, Ron Wyden, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, especially at a moment when Democrats and Republicans are at each other’s throats over impeachment. Congrats to the NBA for pulling it off with their fulsome Chinese bootlicking.

How Illinois Schools Teach Preschoolers To Celebrate Transgenderism
To get a sense of what all Illinois public schools must begin teaching children starting next year, one can look at LGBT curriculum developed this summer in a wealthy Chicago suburb.

“You’re trying to change the meaning of sex”
The oral arguments at the Supreme Court in the case of Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC and two other cases involving LGBT employment issues seem to indicate that we’re heading toward yet another set of close decisions split along partisan lines. If you’ve been following our ongoing coverage of the case here, you’re already aware that the dispute in Harris involves a funeral director named Aimee Stephens who was fired after announcing that he was transgender and planned to begin living and dressing as a woman on the job. Two other cases deal with gay workers who were allegedly fired from their jobs after coming out.

Seattle suffering from street crime and City Attorney that won’t deal with the criminals
Impact Bioenergy runs a “micro food digester” in Seattle which converts grain leftover from a nearby brewery into natural gas and fertilizer. But KOMO News reports this green company is moving out of Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood because of the persistent, low-level crime

Behind The Network Of Outside, Left-Wing Groups Pushing Racial Policies In Cities, Counties Across America
Many cities and counties are adopting radical policies that see every aspect of government operations through the “lens” of race.

After 5 Years Of Trials, Doctors Create Human Liver From Scratch
In a dish sits a human liver. Not removed from a person, but created from scratch.

Holding Pro-Hong Kong Signs, Two NBA Fans Booted From Game—in Philadelphia, USA
Two NBA fans attending a game in Philadelphia say they were kicked out of the stands for holding “Free Hong Kong” signs at a game between the 76ers and the Guangzhou Loong Lions.

12-Year-Old Foster Child Goes on 8-Month School Strike, Begging to Return Home; CPS Refuses to Budge
Aliyah Banta has been in thirteen foster homes over the last fifteen months in the state of California. She was a normal pre-teen girl when she was taken from her father, Justin Banta, for allegations of abuse. Since then, her father has been trying desperately to get her back. About to celebrate her second birthday in state custody, Aliyah says she has suffered the worst of America’s foster system, all because she exaggerated the details of a fight she had with her dad to a teacher at school. According to Aliyah, she lied. And the punishment she has received for it is way more than any child deserves. She has been physically threatened by other residents, forced to sleep on the floor, starved, covered in bed bug bites, had her property stolen, was kept from communicating with her father, and forced to live in substandard conditions that would get any family arrested for neglect.

Survey finds college graduates struggle with basic civic literacy
18 percent of Americans believe AOC authored the New Deal, survey finds

ESPN airs map showing Chinese dominion over South China Sea
Mind you, they’ve already taken to describing Hong Kong human-rights demonstrators as “anti-government” protesters, the most value-neutral phrase they could conceivably use to please their Chinese patrons. Every liberty movement is “anti-government,” after all. If you’ve been to Philadelphia, chances are you’ve visited its most popular historical attraction, the Anti-Government Bell.

Teacher Pummeled By Student After He Tried To Prevent Fight
A teacher who was trying to prevent two high school students from fighting landed in the hospital Monday, school officials in Atlanta said.

Vanderbilt marks ‘Indigenous People’s Day’ with ‘WHITE CANNIBALS’ talk
As part of its celebration of “Indigenous People’s Day,” on what is traditionally recognized as Columbus Day, Vanderbilt University will host a lecture on “white cannibals.”

Meet the Rich Kids Who Want to Give Away All Their Money
The nation’s wealthiest people never expected the real revolution would come from inside their own families.

In Georgia Divorce Case, Lesbian Claims Her Same-Sex Marriage Wasn’t Real
A major LGBT activist who now faces a divorce filing from her longtime lesbian partner is claiming their marriage was never legally valid

Californians Fume Over Massive Power Outages and Sky-High Gas Prices
Meanwhile, one of California’s leading #Resistance politicos was elected to Global Climate Leadership Group.

Two Important Stories Not About Trump
When our President is not sucking up all the oxygen in the country, his political opponents are creating a hysteria that they tell us will be the end of him that turns out to be a big pile of cow dung. That leaves little room for the remaining stories of interest that have major effects on our lives. They are basically ignored because of the glow going elsewhere. Let’s spend some time on two issues that deserve some of that glow.

LGBT Town Hall Highlights Democrat Assault on Religious Freedom
On Thursday, nine 2020 Democrats took the stage at the CNN Equality Town Hall and announced their support for the Equality Act. That alone puts them on record opposing the religious freedom of conservative Christians and those of other faiths who disagree with same-sex marriage and transgender identity. Yet many of the Democrats stood out in their radical demands on policy and their demonizing of dissent on these issues.

Shakespeare who? “Equity” committee wants more diversity in U. Minnesota English department
If you’ve ever wanted to see an example of what your tuition dollars fund these days, be sure to read through the recommendations written by a University of Minnesota diversity committee.

Warren’s same-sex marriage quip captures what some find exciting — and others distressing — about her
About 90 minutes into Thursday’s forum on LGBTQ issues in Los Angeles, a gay rights leader posed a question to Sen. Elizabeth Warren: How would she respond if a voter approached her and said, “I’m old-fashioned, and my faith teaches me that marriage is between one man and one woman?”

If the Oceans Become Transparent
Imagine a world in which the oceans hide nothing. Cheap sensors are deployed all across and below the water. Swarms of unmanned undersea, surface, and aerial vehicles rove in search of adversaries. Governments can see everything that happens. Nuclear-armed submarines that once hid in the vastness of the ocean would be revealed. What does this mean for the sea-based nuclear deterrence and second-strike reliability? And how should states respond?

Voyager Mission Reveals Unexpected Pressure at The Edge of The Solar System
NASA astronomers have used data from the Voyager probes to measure the bustle of particles rippling at the very edge of our Solar System, and discovered the pressure in the distant borderlands of our star is higher than they expected.

NBA’s Steve Kerr Compares Communist China To Owning An AR-15
During a press conference on Thursday, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr compared the human rights violations in communist China to owning an AR-15 and committing a mass shooting.

Center of Milky Way exploded 3.5 million years ago
Some 3.5 million years ago, a sudden blast of energy rippled across the Milky Way. The cone-shaped burst of radiation sprang from the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.

Male-Bodied Rapists Are Being Imprisoned With Women. Why Do so Few People Care?
In 2015, the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists (BAGIS) submitted a written brief to the Transgender Equality Inquiry, which had been undertaken by the UK Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee, explaining why it was “naïve to suggest that “nobody would seek to pretend transsexual status in prison if this were not actually the case.”

James O’Keefe to #ExposeCNN With Undercover Video Dropping Monday
“dozens of recordings made of officials at the highest levels of CNN, revealing a political agenda, bias and misconduct hidden from public view”

Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions
A spate of bad lawyering, a spate of congressional subpoenas, and finding love in prison.

Allegations of Sex with the Devil Aren’t Libelous, says a federal court.
From Magistrate Judge Richard A. Lanzillo in Peschmann v. Quayle (W.D. Pa. Aug. 13, 2019): [Marinka] Peschmann attempts to state a defamation claim against [Stephen] Quayle, arguing that his comment that she had sexual relations with the devil imputes serious sexual misconduct to her and therefore constitutes defamation per se. [Quayle’s statement was, “When I hear a woman making a claim to a national editor of a major Internet uh, uh, uh presence, news presence, and talking about sleeping with the devil … If someone says they are sharing the bed with the devil that means they are having sex with an entity, okay?”]

 

Economy & Taxes

 

Elizabeth Warren Vows to Remake Capitalism. Businesses Are Bracing.
The Democratic Party’s favored presidential candidate has proposed sweeping changes to how business operates; many executives expect she would tack center

GM’s third-quarter China vehicle sales down 17.5%, as US automakers cede ground
The U.S. automaker was hurt by a slowing economy amid the Sino-U.S. trade war and by heightened competition in its key mid-priced SUV segment.

 

International

 

Boris Johnson to sabotage EU if forced to delay Brexit
Boris Johnson would veto the EU’s seven-year budget and send a Eurosceptic commissioner to Brussels to “disrupt” the bloc’s workings if he were forced into a Brexit delay, under plans being discussed by ministers.

Boris Johnson preparing to “squat” as Prime Minster to ensure Brexit
Boris Johnson is preparing to “squat” as Prime Minister in 10 Downing Street – even if fellow members of parliament stage a successful vote of no confidence in his government – in order to ensure Brexit is accomplished by Oct. 31, according to the Sunday Times of London.

Apple approves Hong Kong protest location
An app that tracks the location of police patrols in Hong Kong is now available via Apple, despite the firm’s reservations about its potential use.

Venezuela can’t sell its oil and storage tanks are full – so it’s giving it away to Cuba
Facing the risk of losing oil-production capacity, the Nicolás Maduro regime has developed a seemingly counterintuitive solution to keep the wells pumping: Give away crude to Cuba.

Cuba is slowly losing a lifeline as Venezuela collapses
In Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union – and the end of its generous subsidies – fuel was so scarce that many people stopped driving and the government imported thousands of Chinese bicycles.

Girls are skipping school to avoid sharing gender neutral toilets with boys after being left to feel unsafe and ashamed
Menstruating girls are staying home for fear of being made to feel ‘period shame’

British PM Johnson to EU: ‘We’re Packing our Bags and Walking Out’ in 25 Days
If European Union leaders thought there would be any flagging or hesitation from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson when the Brexit deadline loomed, they were sadly mistaken.

China’s military warns protesters they may be arrested for targeting Hong Kong barracks with laser light
China’s Hong Kong military garrison warned protesters on Sunday they could be arrested for targeting its barracks in the city with laser lights.

Biblical Genesis ‘Incompatible With Human Dignity,’ British Court Says
A British court recently ruled against Dr. David Mackereth, a disability assessor who was fired from the United Kingdom’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) last year for refusing to use transgender pronouns. The DWP had asked Dr. Mackereth, “What would you do if you were to assess someone who is obviously a man but asks to be referred to as ‘she’ or ‘Missis’ in the report?” Mackereth replied that, as a Christian, he wouldn’t comply with the request. He was summarily sacked.

Blizzard Bans Esports Player Following Pro-Hong Kong Interview
Professional ‘Hearthstone’ player Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai has been suspended from the company’s Grandmasters tournament events in the wake of a livestream interview over the weekend in which he voiced support for pro-democracy protestors in China.

Hong Kongers Bravely Defy Face Mask Ban
What was Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive, thinking when she issued a face mask ban? Did she think that it would quell the anger of Hong Kongers and put the fear of Xi into them? Actually it did just the opposite: protestors took to the streets anyway, bravely defying the ban.

Bafta TV Awards will have to consider diversity targets for first time
The board will have to consider a new set of eligibility rules for entrants in 2020

Algeria’s ‘Smile Revolution’ Boils Below the Radar
Algeria’s first nationwide protest occurred Friday, Feb. 22, some 16 days after then-President (for life) Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s National Liberation Front (FNL) caregivers published a letter announcing the hospitalized stroke victim would run for a fifth term in 2019.

Behemoth’s Nergal sparks controversy with “black metal against Antifa” t-shirt
After posting two images of the t-shirt on Instagram, the Behemoth frontman moves to explain why he shared the pictures

Chinese president issues warning with Hong Kong burning
Chinese President Xi Jinping has a warning for Hong Kong protesters: your push for democracy will be your undoing.

Police called in as Hong Kong and China tensions spread to UK universities
Police have been called following a series of clashes between Hong Kong and Chinese students as universities are accused of failing to protect them.

Sheffield SU bans white students from attending “anti-racism” meetings
Sheffield Students’ Union has banned white students from attending meetings for its new “anti-racism” policy.

 

Opinion

 

The Death of Europe, with Douglas Murray
In this episode of Uncommon Knowledge, Peter Robinson is joined by author and columnist Douglas Murray to discuss his new book The Madness of Crowds: Race, Gender and Identity. Murray examines the most divisive issues today, including sexuality, gender, and technology, and how new culture wars are playing out everywhere in the name of social justice, identity politics, and intersectionality. Is European culture and society in a death spiral caused by immigration and assimilation? Robinson and Murray also discuss the roles that Brexit and the rise of populism in European politics play in writing immigration laws across the European Union.

NYC could fine you $250K for reading this column aloud
Last week, the New York City Commission on Human Rights unveiled new discrimination guidelines. It is now illegal to use the term “illegal alien” with the intent to “demean, humiliate or harass a person.”

What Is Patriotism?
It’s an ancient question – what is patriotism? Who’s a patriot? Who’s not?

Wait, We Haven’t Even Gotten to the Ugly Part of the Impeachment Fight Yet!
What do you do when the country is about evenly split on whether to remove a president? Today’s new poll from Quinnipiac shows 45 percent of registered voters saying President Trump should be impeached and removed and 49 percent opposing the idea. The new Washington Post poll shows 49 percent support removing Trump from office.

Is Elizabeth Warren Having Her Moment? Or about to Be Overtaken by Events?
Below, Alexandra DeSanctis notes that reports of the death of Joe Biden’s lead are, so far, greatly exaggerated, with the former vice president still leading, 33 percent to Elizabeth Warren’s 21 percent in the latest national Morning Consult poll. Still that survey result stands out a bit; the three previous national surveys put Warren narrowly ahead, and the Massachusetts senator narrowly led four of the last six in the RealClearPolitics average.

Poll Shows Biden in a Solid Lead in Democratic Primary
The latest polling data from Morning Consult show former vice president Joe Biden climbing back into a stable lead in the Democratic presidential primary, after several weeks of running alongside Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren.

Who killed the American arts?
The decline from Duke Ellington and Aretha Franklin to A$AP Rocky and Lizzo is a slide from civilization to barbarism

Is America Entering a Dark Age?
Many of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks.

Elizabeth Warren Throws Women under the Bus in the Name of LGBTQ Rights
National Review’s Zachary Evans reports that “Senator Elizabeth Warren called for placing transgender prisoners in detention facilities designed for the opposite sex in a new LGBTQ rights plan released Thursday.” She describes the decision to segregate prisoners according to their biological sex (their sex established at or before birth) as “dangerous.” Similarly, she has said that taxpayers will fund sex-change surgeries for inmates.

The obsession with pronouns is stripping us of our individuality
We live in identity-obsessed times. Everyone seems to be a demi-queer, pan-sapio something or other. There are so many sexual and gender identities, it’s hard to keep track. yet they are not independent of one another. Together, these identities form a group, and that group is greater than the sum of its identifiers.

Syria Risks Becoming Erdogan’s Vietnam
Turkey’s border offensive against the Kurds, far from being a blitzkrieg, is limited by the resources available to Ankara’s forces. According to DW, its goal is to bring a 15,360- square kilometer swath under its control. “Turkey wants to create a 32-kilometer-deep, 480-kilometer-long corridor (20 miles deep, 300 miles long) inside Syria along the border to protect its security… it plans to resettle nearly 1 million of its 3.6 million Syrian refugees who hail from other parts of Syria inside the ‘safe zone.'” But it must do so by installment and on a shoestring.

The Right Doesn’t Need More Courage, We Need Better Training And Bigger Sticks
No magical elves are going to build your community for you. If people are afraid, don’t tell them that they’re cowards. Teach them how to stand up.

The legal-historical amnesia of using tax exemptions to punish political beliefs
A tool for viewpoint discrimination has an anti-LGBT history, too

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